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Saturday, November 05, 2016

Spain

We spread to the area of Modern Spain about 35,000 years ago. Iberian and Celtic tribes mixed with with the trading settlements of Greeks, Phoenicians and Carthaginians, until Rome established the province of Hispania (218BCE-400CE). Then Germanic Kingdoms rose under the Visigoths till the Berber-Arab conquests established Muslim Al-Andalus (711-1492). After completion of the centuries-long Reconquista, the Catholic Monarchies of Castile and Aragon were joined under Isabella and Ferdinand. Although not the first Monarchs approached, they backed Colombus in spearheading the growth of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and inflow of gold which allowed the centralisation of power. España started being used to designate the whole Kingdom, and Spain became a world power. In 1898 the effective end of dominance through the loss of the Spanish-American war led to the need for a philosophical and artistic re-evaluation of Spain's 'place in the world' by a group known as the 'Generation of '98'.

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Swart Donkey

Swart means Black (my surname) in Afrikaans. I am proud of my African roots but am a global citizen who believes that we should look to define ourselves collectively by the great things we can achieve. I believe in freedom of people and ideas and that we are moving towards a more friendly, happy world. Like a Donkey, I can be noisy, stubborn and ignorant - but like a Donkey I am willing to put effort in to change. The focus of this blog is happiness and learning - so basically, it is a blog on everything.